


Undertale Theories + Minifics (ON-HIATUS)

by mag_agles (orphan_account)



Category: Deltarune (Video Game), Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: A LOT of sighing, Amnesia, Christmas pictures, Dead kids, Deltarune References, Deltarune Spoilers, Foreshadowing, Gen, Gerson is Mentioned, Headcanon, Magic Food, Mummification, Papyrus is a little oblivious, Parental Sans, Sans is a Darkner, Sans isn't a Skeleton, Secrets, Selective Amnesia, Theories, Undyne is Confused, a good bit of this pertains to Deltarune, i cant think of tags help, i lack subtlety, mentions of gore, obvious hints, pictures in general, should've added this tag a while ago, whoops, yay
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-18
Updated: 2020-02-14
Packaged: 2020-09-06 19:48:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 17,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20296987
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/mag_agles
Summary: ON HIATUS, Due to the fact that my opinions on things are changing v e r y quickly, and so I'm not sure about my own theories at the moment + some of them are outdated.A series of minifics to help me practice writing and to get a few headcanons/accepted theories in type.Most of these are going to be really short and headcanons will be explained in the ending notes if you want more context as to what i'm talking about.Most of these are probably going to be Sans-centric since I have the most theories about him but most of them involve other canon characters so don't worry.also dont look too deep into chapter 3's comments because there may be spoilers for future chaptersSpeaking of, anything before chapter 4 was written quite a while ago, so it may not be as quality as I'd like it to be.Hope you enjoy!





	1. Someone Who I Used To Train With (Revamped)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Undyne sucks at remembering things.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Revamped, edited and extended! Hopefully improved the formatting, i'm not quite used to this stuff.  
ALSO, CHAPTER ART. Lets be real here for a second, i'm a far better artist than a writer and I wanted to give you something to look at besides mediocre writing.

-1 HP

The human had hit her. With what looked to be all the strength in their little body... and it only did one point of damage. Wow. “Heh.” She dropped her haphazardly formed spear and let it disintegrate as the feeling of the hit echoed through her soul. “Even with all your strength, you couldn't muster up the intent to hurt me?” she asked, the little human shook their head. “Y'know, it kind of reminded me of someone... someone I used to train with.” The feeling of such a intent-less hit resonated in her mind, it had happened sometime before, but who did it? “Honestly, I don't really want to fight you either.” God, she felt so stupid, she fell for Papyrus's trap and ended up with a house set ablaze and a bravado shriveled. She took a moment to glance over her kitchen, “Hey, how about we get out of here, huh?” she said with a light laugh, the human nodded their head vigorously and followed her out of the door. “Man, I can't believe that happened, no wonder why Paps is such an awful cook.” Speaking of Papyrus, “Hey, I'm actually gonna hang with him for a bit, if you need help just call him, okay?” the human nodded and Undyne left her yard and set off towards Snowdin.

Walking across the swampland always seemed to calm her down, the quiet whispers of the echo flowers, the grass that would illuminate as you walked and the glowing water bubbling as it flowed to the swamps namesake. It also gave her time to think, she didn't often retrospect but today was certainly much stranger than usual.

She thought back to the entire situation with the human and how the entire thing was honestly a little ridiculous, was she really that bloodthirsty over a child? Now that she thought of it, she had barely ever seen a human before today, she didn't think they would look so... harmless. She had grown up to believe that humans were vicious and ugly and unfeeling, but this human; the only one that she had ever seen in person, was the complete opposite of that. Then there was that _hit_, the only one the human aimed at her, it was so _familiar_, It felt like a childhood memory. She recalled her days training with King Asgore but he had never hit her, a few false swings maybe but never actually landing a hit.

She racked her brain trying to remember if there was a second instructor, maybe Gerson? No, despite being her inspiration and predecessor he had never trained her aside from how to properly file guard reports and sentry applications. Now that she thought about it, she couldn't recall how she came to know some things, mainly spear walls and proper footing in a fight, Asgore was a good teacher but he had never taught her stances apart from how to hold a spear properly.

_“Now Undyne, see, your footing is all wrong. Your left foot needs to be facing me,” _  
_“Like this?”_  
_“Yep, good, rotate it a little so it's to my right. There you go, oh, little too much._”  
_“Why do I need to learn this? Asgore does it differently...”_  
_“Yeah, well, Asgore is about four times your size and has a giant red pitchfork._”  
_“And you're half his size!”_  
_“... I know, that's why I have different footing silly.”_

Where the hell did _that_ come from?

The words were clear but the voice wasn't. She looked around to see if there were any echo flowers around, it was a stupid thought as she realized that the conversation she remembered could've happened ages ago, probably somewhere in New Home. Undyne noticed that she had stopped walking, she was nearing the lantern field and could hear a stray Temmie making noise nearby. Shaking her head, she continued to walk, the lanterns were no big deal as she had been through here many times. The mushrooms were the same. She tried to hold on to that fleeting memory, she wanted to know who was talking to her, who was teaching her. How could she forget such a figure? She still fought in that same footing her mystery mentor had taught her that day.

_“Right, now to do this you need to materialize your bullet as it's coming up, let me show you,”_  
_“Neat!”_  
_“It's easier if you start with a disk of magic on the ground and sort of, pull a bullet out of it.”_  
_“But how do I do that?” _

How did she do that? How did she _continue_ to do it?

Ugh, she stopped again and in the worst place ever, the whispering room. God she hated this place, it was just _creepy_ and honestly if words could be made out it would probably sound like her mysterious second mentors' garbled voice. She did get a little more out of that last one though, the voice was deep; a mans voice, certainly not Asgore's. Undyne rushed out of the area as quickly as possible and moved on. She returned to walking normally and tried to take her mind off these... disconcerting memories, they were making her kind of sad and she HATED being sad. Her thoughts were interrupted by Papyrus's blaring ringtone, she picked up the call,

“Hey Paps!” “GREETINGS UNDYNE! I HEARD FROM THE HUMAN THAT YOU WERE ON YOUR WAY, UM, WHERE ARE YOU? YOU'RE NORMALLY VERY FAST!” right, she was taking way to long, “Eeeyeah... Sorry, I got off track, I'll be there faster than you can say spaghetti!” “NYEH HEH HEH, YOU DARE CHALLENGE ME? I ASSURE YOU, I CAN-” “I'M RUNNING RIGHT NOW!” Undyne started to run, “OH NO! GOODBYE I MUST SAY THAT WORD!” He hung up. She laughed as she sped through the rest of Waterfall. She stopped to take a breath around Papyrus's brother's station.

That guy was kind of weird, and she had no idea how or why he manned several sentry stations _just_ passing the bare minimum. Honestly, Sans was also an enigma when it came to her memory. She and Papyrus had been friends since they were kids and she absolutely remembered Paps but whenever she thought of Sans it became unfocused and vague, it was like he was there but simultaneously didn't exist, if that made any sense. She felt like she should know him and he himself even seemed of fond of her. Thinking about this, she realized that she knew almost nothing about the guy, just vague things like he's older than Papyrus. How much older? She didn't know. Why does he eat so much? Dunno, do skeletons even need to eat? Why does he seem kind of fat? Can skeletons even get fat?

He was an enigma.

Anyway, she exited the Waterfall tunnel and was welcomed by the distant sound of Papyrus very slowly saying the word 'spaghetti' he was on 'gh', “Dork.” Undyne said under her breath.  
She ran in the direction of Papyrus's house, or was it Sans' house? She didn't really know, shouting, “HEY NERD! DID I MAKE IT OR WHAT?!” Papyrus startled and stared wide-socketed “OH! I, UH, YES! YES YOU DID!” he looked very proud. "Nice!" she pumped her fist victoriously and settled next to him. The memories were still itching in her mind, maybe Papyrus had a clue.

“Hey Papyrus?” “YES?” “Remember when we were kids and I was training with Asgore?” “MHMM.” “Was... was there someone else I trained with? Y'know besides Asgore?”

Papyrus stopped to think and rubbed his chin, “MAYBE?” this surprised Undyne, “DO YOU REMEMBER WHAT HE LOOKED LIKE?” “Uhh not really...” she scratched her head, “Wide?” “WIDE.” “Yes.” “LIKE, FAT WIDE OR JUST WIDE?” she shrugged, “I dunno man, that's why I'm asking you.”

“WELL I REMEMBER THAT YOU JOINED ME WHEN I TRAINED WITH SANS SOMETIMES, BUT I'M NOT SURE HOW OFTEN.” “Did Sans ever like, actually hit us with bullets?” “OH YES, AND HE APOLOGIZED PROFUSELY AFTERWARDS EVEN THOUGH 1HP IS VIRTUALLY NOTHING.”

Undyne couldn't believe her fins.

“REMEMBER? WE HAD A SLEEPOVER ONE TIME AND YOU MENTIONED YOUR TRAINING, SANS ASKED YOU ABOUT 'STANCES'... OR MAYBE IT WAS POSES...” stances. 

“UM UNDYNE? ARE YOU OKAY?” Undyne took a deep breath, Papyrus was concerned. “Papyrus.” “YES?” “He trained me?” “I THINK SO.” _ring, ring_ ”OHO, THE HUMAN CALLS!”

Papyrus picked up the phone, “GREETINGS HUMAN! OH, MY BROTHER'S ACTUALLY AT HIS STATION? I'M SURPRI- WHAT? HE'S MAKING HOTDOGS? WOW, AVOIDING ONE JOB BY DOING ANOTHER. HE IS TRULY A MASTER.” Undyne could do nothing but nod. That weird, lazy sentry _trained_ her? How? When?? Why didn't anyone tell her??? HOW DID SHE NOT KNOW IN THE FIRST PLACE????

"PSST, UNDYNE!" Papyrus asked in a stage whisper, "What?" Undyne asked breaking out of her shocked silence. "WOULD YOU LIKE TO SAY ANYTHING?" She thought, "Uhh, Yeah, totally, hand over the phone!" the phone was given to her. "Hey dweeb, so I heard you're near Sans' uh, _other _sentry station, didn't know he had that many honestly..." she trailed off, "What's he doing again?" the human spoke quietly, "He's just sitting there? Hey, question, does he look "fighty" to you?" the human sounded confused, "Y'know, _fighty." _this didn't help the human understand. 

"I mean, does he look like he's capable of fighting me?" she could practically hear the human shrugging and saw Papyrus's brow raise questioningly. "Why? Uh, no reason in particular!" they didn't sound convinced, "No, no I don't want to beat him up! Though I can't believe he was _sleeping_ at his post, can you believe that guy?" even they sounded exasperated. "Yeah, oh! Hey, if you see Alphys, tell her I said 'hi' okay?" neutral affirmation, "Okay, sweet, talk to you later!" disconnected. She handed the phone back to Papyrus, who was still giving her the brow. "DO YOU WANT TO FIGHT MY BROTHER?" he asked, "What? No! I just wanted to see if he looked up to it."

"BUT WHY?" Hiding things from Papyrus was a little harder than you might expect, then again, lying to him never felt right to her. She gave off a little sigh, "Okay so, on my way over here, I was chilling, having a nice walk and then _boom_, I had a flashback like one of Alphys's human history tapes!" Papyrus looked intrigued, "But the thing was, I couldn't really tell who was in it besides myself, I think it was a guy, a wide guy who was training me but... I can't remember who it was." she paused, "Did your brother actually train me? Like one on one?" Papyrus squinted his eye sockets "HMM... WELL I'M NOT QUITE SURE! I ONLY REMEMBER THE TIMES YOU TRAINED ALONGSIDE ME." 

"I MEAN AFTER ALL, IF IT WAS ONE ON ONE TRAINING THAN I WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN THERE." He shrugged, "Yeah, you're right." she replied dejectedly. "I'M SORRY I COULDN'T BE MORE USEFUL." Papyrus apologized, "Nah, you're good. It was cool to find out that Sans trained me though, didn't know he had it in him!" Undyne laughed. "It's just strange that I never remembered, like, at ALL." she said. "DO YOU REALLY NOT REMEMBER OUR HANGOUTS?" Papyrus asked, "No, I totally remember those! But when it comes to your brother, everything just goes fuzzy." she explained.

Papyrus looked thoughtful, Undyne leaned back into the houses' paneling rubbing her arms, "Ugh, it's stupid I know." the cold dry air of Snowdin was starting to seep into her scales, "I DO NOT THINK IT'S STUPID, THIS CLEARLY MEANS A LOT TO YOU." Papyrus replied, "I'm not even sure if it's actually anything, it's so confusing." she groaned. "WHEN DID IT START?" he asked, "Maybe like 10 minutes before you called." "HMM." "HAS IT HAPPENED BEFORE?" he asked, "Kind of? But only small memories like someone picking me up after school, or someone brushing my hair." honestly, those memories were very dear to Undyne despite not knowing who was there, the fact that there was someone alongside Asgore that cared for her while he was busy was comforting. 

"PERHAPS YOU SHOULD TALK TO MR. DREEMURR? HE MIGHT KNOW WHO IT IS." Why didn't she think of that? "Good point, I'll ask him later." she replied.

Her phone dinged, a couple of UnderNet updates from Alphys that read: _"Oh My God i Forgot to Tell THem Where To Go"_ followed shortly by _"OH MY GOD HOW DID THAT EVEN END UP WORKING LMAO"_

Things seemed to be going well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Headcanon: Sans trained Undyne at some point
> 
> Reasoning:
> 
> You fake hit Undyne which does only 1HP of damage which is familiar to her and Sans only has one ATK.  
  
Asgore, according to Undyne never attacked back (and I don't think she would call him a wimpy loser, big heart or not, she even takes back her weenie comment), Gerson was never evidenced to have trained her.  
  
Undyne reflects on how you can't muster up any intent, Sans is evidenced to be incredibly non-violent and only attacks when absolutely necessary and even then KR is actually a safety net for the player.  
  
Undyne doesn't know that much about Sans despite being related to (her best friend) Papyrus, She barely recalled someone she _trained_ with and I feel that was really ooc for someone so invested in being a guard. 
> 
> Technical/Detail Specific Reasoning:  
This is really just a detail that may or may not be evidence for anything BUT as mentioned in the fic and irl your stance in fighting is incredibly important, it provides balance and can give you an advantage in combat, Sans and Undyne have pretty similar fighting stances as illustrated in the fic; one foot to the right/left of the opponent and one facing away while keeping themselves in motion. This is actually highlighted by the fact that Undyne looks like she's mimicking Asgore when she tries to fight you in her burning house.  
Compare:  
Undyne/Asgore  

> 
> Undyne/Sans (Notice the footing.)  

> 
> Admittedly, Sans definitely has a wider stance, but that could be explained by the fact that he's generally wider than Undyne and standing with legs that close together would probably be really uncomfortable.  
Also, something that I just goddamn realized, the actual torso movements are swapped so it goes like this:  
Burning House Fight: Footing: Asgore - Movements: Sans  
Regular Fight: Footing: Sans - Movements: Asgore 
> 
> The bone/spear walls thing is kind of a stretch but, Asgore never does anything like it (Sans does) and it was only stated in-game that Undyne was trained and gave no indication that she made up her own tricks, though that's still entirely possible. Plus I didn't want this to be *too* short and it flowed fairly well.  
-  
Could Undyne have trained Sans? Not likely, Undyne and Papyrus are fairly close in age (XX91-XX95 according to their UnderNet usernames, giving them a 3-4 year age gap assuming they were both born in the same decade, i do.) so it would be a little weird for someone to learn from someone potentially much younger than themselves.  
-  
Why does Undyne have amnesia? Another (accepted) headcanon. I'll tell you later.


	2. Runaway

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Not really a headcanon, as it is, y'know, _canon_ that Toriel ran away.  
This is really a personal interpretation of her thought process/journey on her way to the ruins. 
> 
> Slight Warning: This does get _slightly_ graphic at one point, but it's really not that bad. Tho if you're sensitive to like, eye sockets or mentions of mummification or death then watch out i guess.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bit longer than the last one, you know, i write these minifics to spice up my headcanons/theories but that last one was about as spicy as mayonnaise.  
(I might revamp chapter 1 cause' im really not that happy with it.)  
This one is hopefully a bit better in quality, just, don't write fanfiction at 3am okay? It won't turn out that well, I promise. 
> 
> Also this one is really descriptive, I can't think of good dialogue rn.  
Also also, i've learned that my formatting sucks major ass, please forgive me lmao.

The past cries of the crowd rang clear in her ears as she padded quietly down the stairs as to not disturb a thing. She maneuvered her way through the halls of the castle passing maids and mourners alike ignoring their piteous gazes. Blinking the unwanted tears from her eyes she entered the more private wing of the palace, an atrium made of cold gray stone. Finally away from the prying eyes of the other castle residents and the angry despair of her husband she slid to the floor in an effort to control the oncoming barrage of tears threatening to ruin her mask. She failed, her resolve buckling under itself as she let off a series of loud sobs into her hands, everything was going so _wrong_. What happened? Barely in the span of a month, the hope and joy of her kingdom was poisoned and slashed to bits along with her children, and her husband, in a fit of rage and anguish declared an impossible war and irreversibly stoked the flames of the public.  
  
“Lady Toriel?” her tears were interrupted by the wavering words of a stray maid, the smaller woman hid her purple scaled face behind her tray, her claws shaking. Toriel wiped at her face trying to un-blur her vision, sniffed, and tried to put on some semblance of a smile, “Meredith, I um- didn't quite see you there...” she wiped at her eyes more vigorously and cleared her throat, “I am... all right, thank you.” Toriel picked herself up off the floor and braced herself against the wall. “Is- is there anything I can do for you My Lady?” the maid, now Meredith asked. Was there anything anyone could do for her anymore? She recalled something, something her child would want. Toriel blinked, her mind set “Yes actually, there is.” she straightened herself, “Please get me a cloak, and do not tell a soul you saw me.” confusion flashed against the servants' face, “_Now_, please.” the other nodded and headed off into the previous hall. Toriel took a deep breath, her heart racing and she waited for the others' return. The maid returned with a large cloak and handed it to the Queen, who said  
“Remember, do not tell a single soul. Run along now.” she accentuated her words with a light shooing motion. Nodding, Meredith left.  
  
Toriel donned the cloak and headed towards the private throne room, stars how she hated it now. Asgore had once wanted to plant a garden there, to beautify the odd cracks of dirt breaking apart the golden tiles, perhaps now he could, with the stray seeds and the spread dust of her son. She made her way around the thrones and into the hall beyond and took a left, to the basement. The basement itself used to be a temporary space for old artifacts and paintings now since moved to the museum, all that was left was a lonesome coffin, marked “Chara”, that held the mummified corpse of her child. She kneeled to the side of the coffin and removed the top of it, cringing at the sight of the small, wrapped body. She got to work tearing the linen apart to reveal the remains, gagging at the smell of embalming fluid and oils and the empty sockets of what was once was her child's warm brown eyes. Finally removing all of the linen and resin she carefully cradled Chara's body to her own and let out a belt of quiet cries. She hid the body under the cloak and headed upstairs once more turning into the throne room.  
  
She quickly gathered some of Asriel's dust into her hands and departed the room for the last time. Toriel made her way into the Judgment Hall, which frankly did a good enough job judging people without it's master, a man she could not quite recall. The room judged her, judged her for her cowardice, for her obliviousness, for her failures to her children and to her duties. She ignored the judgment and nearly sprinted towards the end of the hall. Throwing open the wooden door she found herself on the eastern wall, a beeline to the CORE, however, she decided on another way, the evacuation route. On every wall there was a way to the coast of the capital where boats lay dormant until needed and she needed one. Sitting in one of the boats she gently laid down her precious cargo and took hold of the oars, rowing to the farther sides of the giant cavern; the entrance to Waterfall and from there, Snowdin. She looked to the capital, the city that herself and her husband had helped build from the ground up, she wondered what he would think? Would he be angry? Would he understand why she had to do this?  
  
Asgore was by no means a violent, angry or even remotely _mean_ man, but even Toriel did not know how he would react to this break of trust. Taking another deep breath she kept rowing and tried to keep her mind off of it. She looked upwards to the high ceiling glittering with magical crystals and glowworms, even if she knew it wasn't the real thing her mind was tricked by memories of the real stars and brought another onslaught of tears to her eyes, she wondered if Asriel had seen the beautiful night sky. Someone had once brought her a human astronomy book into court, it listed the names of the stars and one was pointed out to her, a star nicknamed Chara, oh, she was so excited to show her child! Even they looked happy then. She was shaken out of her nostalgic daze by a large thump signaling the end of her ride. She felt the wet lines below her eyes and rubbed at them as she picked up what remained of her children.  
  
The trek through Waterfall was outrageously depressing, everyone she saw was in mourning, the usually jazzy bands that played throughout the area were morose and held a mist of despair over the heads of the swamps' inhabitants. It pained her to see her people in such a state but she remained hidden in fear of discovery. Soon she reached the ancient bridge seed puzzle which had been completed ages ago and never reset, she gently danced through the puzzle trying to find some semblance of peace. She lost herself in thought until she felt the chilled crunch of snow under her foot, she flinched at the sudden change and found herself at the small outcropping of rock leading out into the tundra. Snowdin, despite whatever horrible event always seemed cheery, a welcome sight to the Queens' tired eyes. Toriel pulled the cloak closer around her and her cargo and held the dust in her hand as tightly as she could and started walking down the snow-packed street. She passed a house, who's owner was removing a “For Sale” sign, it was a nice large house, an oddity for a small town such as Snowdin, a library, what appeared to be a bar, and an inn connected to a general store. Not many people were outside thankfully, and those who were didn't even spare her a glance.  
  
Finally, she made it to the forest, one which had escaped her memory long ago. It was a very peaceful place albeit constantly looking dead and frozen. The puzzles of the tundra were odd and quite old consisting of a few snow mazes and pitfalls, everything else was either lost to time or completely frozen over. But at last she arrived at her destination; a grand door made of curiously purple stone, an entrance to the former capital. Truthfully, there were several entrances to Home, however, as soon as everyone who wanted to move had done so, most were sealed for security purposes. One of the few that remained unsealed went directly into the foyer of her old house and that was the one she would pursue. Toriel walked up to the door and spoke a simple spell to break the locking charm and she pushed her way into the dark hall. She closed the door, redid the charm and made her way through the passage of sealed tunnels until she reached the ever familiar steps of her old stairs. Bracing herself, she walked up into the foyer and blinked in the darkness, she summoned up a few flame bullets to guide her way out of the house, not wishing to stay here longer than she had to.  
  
The Ruins were an extension of Home, they served as monster catacombs and the first line of defense against the strangely non-existent attacks of the humans, but none ever seemed to come. The puzzles, even more ancient than Snowdins' were still functioning and even Toriel almost fell to the leaf path maze. She passed mass burial sites, more puzzles, tunnels and what could be considered a wall of the old castle until she came to the “great drop”, the hole that lead into the Underground. What could be assumed was the Barrier shimmered in the invading sunlight, poisoning the Queen's emotions with a sharp pang of jealousy of what was once lost. But the real focus of this place was the bed of lovely golden flowers at the foot of the cave surrounded by crumbling pillars and rampant overgrowth, she made it. Putting her cargo down as gently as monsterly possible, Toriel set to work gingerly removing a section of flowers as to not tear the roots with her claws. It gave her a horrible sense of deja vu tinted with depressing nostalgia, it was just like old times when Asgore would tend to these very same flowers and would ask for her help even though she was no good with gardening. She ignored the bitter tears in her eyes and kept digging until she thought it was deep enough. Chara had once more wanted to see the flowers of their village, now they would be put to rest under them.  
  
Toriel turned to her children again and grabbed Chara, cradling them in her arms one last time before kissing their forehead and wrinkling her nose at the stench. Before she started to shovel the dirt back on top of the corpse, Toriel had a thought, her children had been inseparable even as they died and Asriel had never really expressed his favorite object. Putting monster dust on a human was as taboo as a monster could get, it was like mixing human ashes together and monsters took such burials very seriously. But Toriel couldn't care any less now, perhaps Asriel could live on _with_ Chara instead of Chara going off to whatever afterlife humans had and being separated from their brother. _“No.”_ Toriel thought, she would never let that happen, not now, not _ever_. She went over to the pile of Asriels dust and grabbed a large pinch, and she grabbed hold of Chara's hand with the other and said, “Chara,” her voice caught in her throat, “Chara, my dear sweet child, I am trusting you to look after your brother when- when you...” it was so much harder to say out loud. Trying to enunciate as much as possible to avoid the growing tearful hiccups “I am, asking you, to watch over Asriel when you pass over and Asriel,” she grasped the dust tighter as tears built up in her eyes, “You must do the same, look after each other as best as you can.” her breathing was becoming erratic. She placed the dust onto Chara's chest and covered it with their hand as she crossed their arms. “B-Be good for me, alright? Be good for your mother.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I got sad writing this. 
> 
> \---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Sort of headcanon?: Asgore _and_ Toriel dealt with the deaths of their kids in shit ways, Asgore declaring a "war" collecting souls, Toriel running away from duty/people/problems, hoarding children and hypocrisy.
> 
> See, a thing about monsters and the fact that they are very connected to their souls, makes them very, VERY emotional creatures, making them an incredibly powerful conductor for the mob mentality, an emotional reaction to the emotional reactions of their peers and leaders. It's very clear that Asgore regretted declaring war and never really wanted to follow through with his plan, however due to his contribution and the pressure of his people that can be seen on your way to the Judgement Hall, all of those monsters retelling the tragic tale of Asriel and Chara and giving the whole "You're going to be free" spiel that they have accepted as _death_, he didn't really have that much of a choice and could've faced impeachment, even Gerson said that he felt betrayed by Asgore's decision to gather human souls and break the Barrier. How do you think an entire _kingdom_ of monsters would react to their leader backtracking on something so emotionally charged?
> 
> Toriel is another case entirely, she ran the fuck away, it wasn't an official separation, she just grabbed her kids remains and skedaddled. Ofc there's more nuance to that, she likely had good intentions but did it in the worst way possible by abandoning everything. And then at the end of the Pacifist Route where everyone meets up something often gets passed up, the fact that she suggested a FASTER plan for Asgore to collect human souls (killing humans), meaning that she wasn't really against killing humans, she just didn't like the way Asgore did it.  
Might I also add, her plan is almost identical to Asriel and Chara's plan, get one soul, go to the surface, get six more, free everyone (and maybe destroy humanity if you're up for it).  
And if it was such a good plan, why didn't she do it herself? She's a grown-ass woman with high stats and was known to be pretty damn tough. 
> 
> In short:  
Asgore is a depressed doormat and Toriel is a sad, angry hypocrite, they both sucked when it came to this.
> 
> Also Chara had brown eyes, fite me on this pendeja


	3. Food for the Void

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> damn monsters and their *shuffles deck, pulls card* magical food. 
> 
> I actually wrote this months ago, but I cleaned it up so it's still fair game.  
I think this was supposed to be journal entry styled? maybe retrospective? I dunno. iirc I wrote this as some kind of 5AM splurge.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would advise skipping the fic part of this chapter because it kinda really sucks, the theory part is really the best part of this chapter and the comments are a good continuation of the theory.

p>  


honestly, needing to eat isn't really the worst thing in the world. believe me, i know.

as someone who needs to eat in a place as agriculturally barren as the underground, i have some experience. actually obtaining what monsters call "human food" is the hardest part.

see, monsters have no need to eat, their food literally turning into pure energy once they close their mouths leaves me with a dilemma; getting food that actually feeds me instead of being a delicious alternative to an effective energy drink. i can't even get an HP boost from the stuff.

a fairly constant source of "human food" is asgore's vegetable garden being grown for nostalgic purposes. alongside the abundance of snails, that garden is actually very good to me and i'd probably be going hungry every waking hour without it. i scrounge around the waterfall dump occasionally, sometimes the produce is actually fresh.

there was one time, that i had gone too long without "human food" and i had to distract myself with magnitudes of monster food to ease the hunger pangs, undyne was sleeping over that night and although messing with undies is a great pastime i worry that i gave something away every time i closed a cabinet or slammed the fridge closed.

i have to be careful, if anyone ever learns what i am then it'll open the biggest can of worms that anyone could open down here and i'd have to uncover every secret i have or lie even more. neither option is optimal, against popular belief, i don't like lying.

there are some who know, old friends, asgore, probably toriel. most people that know, or rather _knew_ have passed away or are exceptionally senile. or... have just forgotten, that too.

i remember the surface. y'know, back then, and i know i sound old as hell, but back then things were so much simpler. instead of worrying about timelines and resets and how to best hide your non-monster, non-skeletal body you just had to worry about what chores you were assigned tomorrow and whether you were running late to a lesson.

having such good friends and a friendly community of monsters almost made me forget my irrational hatred of lightners, until the barrier came up of course. the barrier reminds me of the thick, rune infested pane of magic that locked me out of my home, i tried to break that thing an uncountable number of times and only in recent decades have i started making progress on my home-brew dark door, aka my bedroom door.

that thing never seems to work, it's pitch black but nothing else ever comes from it. although it's been so long and i don't even know what life's like in there anymore, i still miss it.

papyrus said something interesting a small while back; that my room looked like another world. i'm outrageously jealous, he doesn't understand the importance of what he saw and i can never explain it to him nor can i recreate it myself. life isn't fair sometimes. perhaps he's just not used to such a mess.

sometimes i dream of home, sometimes so vividly that i have to pinch myself after i wake up in case the real world is actually a dream, or a nightmare if this is really just a looping timeline that relies on the actions of an outside force.

this timeline nonsense really does bother me and combined with the vivid dreams and the titanic sense of déjà vu, it makes me incredibly existential. not a fan.

there are other troubles to being a non-monster in a monster world, aside from food and physical appearance. dogs are incredibly perceptive, doggo even calls me "big guy" even though he can't see unless i move. i have to take the "big-boned" joke seriously, it sucks and i'm honestly wondering if i'm getting fat.

i hope i'm not, skeletons aren't supposed to be pudgy.

\---------

### End Notes

I couldn't actually fit this in the real end notes section, it was 600 characters over the limit lmao.

Right so there's a few things in here, lets get started:  
(This is long)  
And there's a lot here to do with Deltarune, so if you haven't played that, then this might not make sense.

Headcanon/Theory: Sans is a Darkner

Reasoning:  
Straight up, I think this post and it's edits sum up why I believe this and to quote it, Toby is screaming evidence at us at this point.  
Post: <https://www.reddit.com/r/Undertale/comments/9tej2w/delta_rune_revealed_why_sans_bleeds_tiny_dr/>

Seriously, read it. It's not that long.

However, I do have something to add. There is a similarity between Sans' fight and Spade Kings' fight namely the “ugh this battle is wearing me out/im not used to fighting like this” thing, both of them say something about being worn out and offer an alternative ie: putting your weapon down/talking it over peacefully and once you fall for it they launch an undodgeable attack, the only difference is that fact that Sans actually kills you.

Detail: The “dusting” sfx is the same as the sparing sfx, there is no distinct sound for dusting it just marks the end of the fight. So there's a big possibility that Sans doesn't dust at all.

Another small headcanon that applies to Darkners in general is that they process food like humans, one guy in the Dark World even mentions calories (nutrition) and the fact that food (or at least Dark Candy) is actually grown instead of magically made like monster food.

One more Darkner headcanon, if the Delta Rune originated from Darkners, I think they were sealed before monsters were imprisoned due to Gerson saying the meaning of it has been lost to time and it was made before written history, which btw could be a very VERY long time ago, like im talking 3000+ BC or perhaps he meant monsters recorded history. This could also mean that monsters might be complicit in sealing Darkners if they're considered Lightners based on Spade king calling Kris AND Susie Lightners.

Also if any of you say that the blood is ketchup after reading why it _can't_ be ketchup, i'm officially disowning you.  
And it can't be marrow either because that's not how bones work and Papyrus doesn't bleed.  
And it's not Determination because Sans never revived nor did Undyne bleed DT, she just melted.  
\------------  
Extension: Sans isn't a skeleton either, not even a Darkner one (if those even exist).

Reasoning:  
The way he bleeds, and I've already showed you why it can't be anything but blood, see, if he was a skeleton then he wouldn't have bled at all let alone some but for arguments sake, let say he would. You slice him from his shoulder to his hip and it bleeds the entire way, there's no indication that you cut ribs or a hip bone, it looks like you cut into a solid thing without any gaps.

Physical appearance, Okay, so I've never thought he was a skeleton, the second I did the Genocide Route, beat him, and saw him bleed (almost 4 years ago) I was like, nah this dude isn't a skeleton. Some people say that he looks like a skeleton and... _have you ever seen an actual skeleton in real life?_ Sans does NOT look like a skeleton lmfao, first, his EYES, his face is like 55% eyes and he straight up has _dimples_, and his legs don't even look close to bones (you see them when you knock him down). Papyrus is much closer to a realistic skeleton, of course the games' art style isn't quite realistic (plus he's a monster) but we have enough details on Paps to actually discern skeletal features such as individual forearm bones (radius and ulna) generally more skeletal facial features such as a correctly shaped nasal cavity (Sans has a triangle for a nose) and a near separation of the top and bottom jaw, due to being a monster they're connected, assumedly so he can talk/”eat” consumables.

Also I feel the need to mention that merchandise/out of game content isn't canon via word of god, Toby made a tweet about it:  
<https://twitter.com/tobyfox/status/802147835244400640?lang=en>

So those out of game depictions of Sans aren't canon ie: proper nasal cavity/separated shin bones (tibula and fibula)/vertebrae, those are separate artists' depictions.

Then there's also the fact that he groups skeletons and monsters together, you don't refer to other people as “humans”, do you? Also he calls monsters horrible for some reason, though maybe he's just trying to get into your perspective.  
_”look, there's nothin to be afraid of. it's just a dark cavern filled with skeletons and horrible monsters.”_  
\------------  
Headcanon: Sans Lived on the Surface

This is actually something that I've held for a long time lol  
Reasoning:  
First, Sans knows what the sun is, _“we call that the sun, my friend.”_ though Undyne also knows what the sun is so it's more a language thing specifically “we” and “my friend” who is we? and why is he calling Papyrus his friend instead of the usual “bro” or by name? He knows what a sunburn is and is apparently susceptible to them, _”dang, i wish i brought a parasol, i'm getting a nasty burn from all this sun._, also a little detail: a parasol is specifically used for sun protection and he's the only one to call them that.

Then there's the _"the surface doesn't really appeal anymore" _but like, how would he know if it didn't appeal? if he'd never been, how would he know if it was good or not? seems a little weird that he would just assume the the surface isn't worth it, or worth getting attached to just to get it ripped away. 

Honestly after that it's just a gut feeling y'know? Same thing about his age, I just have a feeling.  
I haven't mentioned anything about his age have I? I think he's in the same age group as Toriel & Asgore. Once again, gut feeling and the fact that he just seems... older? I get a middle-aged vibe from him. I feel it in my _heart_.  
Not exactly hard evidence but that's why it's called a headcanon.  
You could argue that Sans recognizes Toriel as an older lady with the "old lady" comment, but that's actually a direct reference to the "oh, i didn't know you could yodel!" joke she told him.  
  
_"Knock, Knock!"_  
_"who's there"_  
_"Old Lady!"_  
_"old lady who?"_  
_"Oh, I did not know you could yodel!"_

  
Extras:

During my evaluation of Sans' sprites (the real ones), I noticed that right half of his face is weirdly lopsided in comparison: his right eye is slightly offset symmetry-wise, his right pupil is looking more to the right than the left pupil is and the right side of his smile looks more stretched out and the fact that he's facing straight forward means that it's not an angle thing. (I'm talking about the default expression) 

Monsters might have been complicit - _"skeletons and horrible monsters"/"Show my son the monster you REALLY are!"_. What did monsters do?? The fact that Sans and King Spade are weirdly similar is mildly concerning. Also, perhaps mentioning skeletons separately is a way of singling out Papyrus as not being "horrible". 

And yes I know, Toby said that UT and DR aren't connected but the fact that this is mirrored so easily is food for thought, like what actually happened? Why are monsters on the surface in DR? What happened to Darkners in the UT universe? 

Like I said, food for thought.


	4. office clutter.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sans relives some good memories.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> kind of self-indulgent, ngl.
> 
> also i really like how the art turned out

Sans locked the basement door behind him with a click and made his way down the stairs, sighing. The cold dry air nipped at his face and the fluorescent light irritated his eyes but he felt a wave of comfort as he looked at the drawers. Leaning on the desk, he slowly slid to the tiled floor silently berating himself for forgetting a chair. He reached upwards and pulled rolled up blueprints in front of him and silently read them over. He glanced towards the matching sheet covered machine, massaged his temples and dejectedly returned the prints back where they were.

He opened a drawer and rifled through the contents: his old lab coat, his old badge with an aged monochrome ID picture to boot, a child's' drawing of unknown origin and tarnished gold coins dating back to the founding of the New Home mint. Wrong drawer. Sliding open the one to his right he was met with what he was looking for, photo albums. Some of them were fairly recent, as in about 10-15 years ago and some of them contained sepia toned pictures stuck to yellowing, stained paper. But within every photo album, old or new there was always one constant: at least one photo of a happy, genuinely smiling Sans.

The man in question was nostalgically flipping through the pages of the first one he could reach, there were pictures of friends, colleagues, even family who were long gone. Newer albums that contained pictures from the last couple of decades of Papyrus, Undyne and the people that Sans now knew were kept in the drawer to the far right. Sans looked through the older ones, of which he was still present in and stopped at a photo of himself in front of the newly built (at the time) Hotland laboratory.

Another photo dated a decade or so later showed him and a few construction workers at the site of one of the CORE modules, overseeing the project. He sighed, if he recalled correctly this photo was actually featured in the New Home Gazette announcing the project, what fruitful and exciting days those were. He was not one to collect old newspapers, in fact he avoided such a thing and years ago he set to destroy as many of those pressed copies as possible, nothing could be revealed, nothing could threaten his present persona.

Closing the album and closing the drawer to derail his rapidly darkening thoughts, he scooted further right to the next one and extracted a much less ancient collection of photos buried beneath the old. Some may say that older photos are worth more, but he couldn't help but disagree as he looked upon the now fully colored pictures of some of his favorite people, namely a little skeleton often joined by a slightly bigger blue fish girl. He couldn't help but smile a little brighter looking at the pictures of them playing, it warmed his heart almost as much as seeing it in person.

Of course the subjects of these photos were quite a bit older now, but honestly that just made him love them more after seeing them grow into wonderful young adults. Stars he was so proud. Sometimes other monsters made their way into these memories, a large blonde boss monster holding the two children in a Santa costume, another Santa picture, uh, another one... god there were a _lot_ of Giftmas pictures. Sans checked the cover to make sure that it wasn't labeled "Giftmas Memories" or something equally as lame, luckily it wasn't and he returned to the album to a picture that he was actually in, fortunately no Santa costume present but due to the vibrant lights and other gaudy house decorations it was still that cursed time of year.

Sans took a moment to chuckle at the multicolored marshmallows stuck in Asgores' beard and the unnecessary pair of fake antlers behind his horns. In Sans arms was Papyrus who looked around 5 years old, making Undyne, who was nearly standing out of frame on Asgores' head about 10. He recognized the disgustingly overdecorated backdrop as his own living room back when he had a recliner. He missed that thing, it was SO comfy.

Another photo below it was of the yearly carol that Undyne used to sing in and Papyrus was... trying to participate, back then he couldn't quite pronounce "ji" correctly and said it as "jeye". 5-year old Papyrus's attempt at "Jeyengle Bells" was one of the most hilarious things Sans had ever seen in his life though poor Papyrus was nearly embarrassed to tears. Sans leaned his head back and closed his eyes, the trip down the Giftmas tree light studded memory lane left him with happy thoughts and he truly relaxed, a strangely uncommon occurrence nowadays. As drafty and sterile as his basement felt with the soft hum of the overhead light and the faint noises of the underground transformer, it felt like home.

An ugly, cold, turquoise and lilac tiled home.

However something had caught his eye in the past drawer, gently returning the album he gingerly scooted across the cold tile back to where he once was, he sat up and searched more thoroughly. Rifling through the drawer past old papers and old pictures, he felt something. "ouch!" his finger had been pricked by that something, wiping the tiny injury on his shirt he discovered that it was a piece of glass. He stood up and dug around with the intent to throw away whatever had been broken.

That is... until he found what it was.

Sans blinked at the framed picture, the frame itself missing a piece of it's glass face. His own face looked back at him, but something was starkly different, the reflections face shone a grin much more real than his own, the corners of his eyes were crinkling and lines creased his face. The reflection adorned his old lab coat, and even his square glasses tucked into the coat pocket, but these details were outshone by the little reddish-orange bundle cradled in his arms. The adorable image of a sleeping baby skeleton's head poking outside of its swaddle warmed Sans' soul to it's core.

For the first time in a long while, Sans felt that his smile matched the pictures.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> listen. parental sans makes my heart weak, whether its papyrus, whether its frisk, whether it's undyne, whether its whoever  
parental sans is literally the best thing this fandom has come up with 
> 
> Headcanon/Theory: Sans raised Papyrus from a young age
> 
> Reasoning:  
The story that he tells you at the MTT resort about meeting Toriel, specifically the "he gets kind of cranky without his bedtime story" part. I have a feeling that the events of this story happened a while ago as he mentions that himself and Toriel met again and again and again, making it a thing in the present and according to some research, reading bedtime stories is only really beneficial up until the child is 11-13 years old, and plus the way Sans worded it made it seem that he was the one reading it and that Papyrus either didn't or couldn't read it himself which would be a little weird for a 20+ year old man tbh.  
And miss me with that "Papyrus is a teenager/kid" bs, that's just straight up not true and I consider that to be in the same ilk as the "Sans is comfirmed 18!!!" garbage lmao
> 
> A counter argument that i've seen is that the "Fluffy Bunny" book is his favorite, implying that he still reads it, but you can have a favorite childhood book, most people do, for example: I myself was once a child and one of my current favorite books is "The Rainbow Fish", a kids book, because I have fond memories of reading it. So it can be assumed, the fact that he had it _read to him_ by a familial figure that he loved, probably had a positive impact in his life and has fond memories of it. Plus he puts it on the same level as an advanced puzzle making book. And to counter the "he still has childrens books on his bookshelf", guys, I still have fucking _Animorphs_ on my bookshelf, saving books isn't uncommon. Then there's the fact that he nearly doesn't sleep at all and guess what bedtime stories are for.  
I'll give you a hint... ... ...   
_bedtime_.  

> 
> Extras:
> 
> Sans seems like he's constantly looking after Papyrus's happiness and is very (though stealthily) protective bordering on helicopter parent level ie: checking on him multiple times during work hours, trying to subvert you from meeting Papyrus, vague language to soften his words towards Papyrus, etc, even tho he's a grown adult. 
> 
> The "sugary, non-egg substance" thing that Sans attempted to bake, that wasn't the quiche, as the quiche is a joke about a quiche Toby found under a bench and the fact that quiches are SPECIFICALLY made with EGG and aren't usually sugary in the slightest.  
However, that gives us a hint about what he was actually baking, something yellow (whisked eggs and egg yolks are yellow) and sugary. Guess whats usually yellow/golden and literally made of sugar. Butterscotch. Add that with the pie tin in the oven and the repeatedly mentioned healing item, and it's very possible that Sans tried to make a butterscotch pie.
> 
> Where did he get the recipe/idea? Possibly Toriel, she probably could have slid a piece of paper under the Ruins door but even Asgore, her ex-husband, didn't know the recipe so I dunno why she would give it to a friendly stranger, but I mean, hey, they were friends so maybe. There's also the possibility that he tried of of Asgores' as there's a plethora of failed recipes in his garbage can, he could have taken one and tried it out himself.
> 
> Speaking of that last part, i'm about 500% percent sure that Sans and Asgore at least know each other, I'll elaborate l8r


	5. Sleep On It

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Two bros chatting on a mountain.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ah yes, another criminally underdeveloped relationship  
my favorite
> 
> also, _hiatus over_, hallelujah.
> 
> chapter edit: italicized any **/**text**/**  
i forgot, whoops

Asgore sat cross-legged on the shoulder of the mountain, his back to the entrance to the castle and looked upon the rolling plains of the surface edged by forests that hadn't been there before. He had decided to turn back around halfway to the human city, night was falling and the others hadn't come back yet, hopefully they found somewhere comfortable to settle for the night. He silently regretted leaving, it might be considered poor form for the king of monsters to not show up to a hopefully diplomatic meeting, however he couldn't help but be afraid.

He had prepared himself a cup of tea as an attempt to wind down for the night, wishing to spend the night under the stars before facing the upcoming chaos of the next day where he'd have to announce things and make plans for the kingdoms transition to the surface. But another thing plagued his mind, humans, rightfully so, didn't take well to the deaths of their young. How he was supposed to explain himself unfortunately remained elusive. He had long since changed into something more comfortable, took a sip of his tea and leaned back into a neighboring tree that creaked as he shifted his weight onto it.

Even without the sentimentality of the past the surface was gorgeous, even with the new natural and man-made developments. His tired eyes scanned the expanse of land in search of old landmarks, there was the old creek, there, slightly overgrown, was that er, _strange_ formation of rocks, and wherever the old capital went it went either underground or was covered by centuries of shrubbery. He polished off his cup and shut his eyes, only for his peace to be interrupted by a sound he had now gotten used to over the last couple of decades; an unnatural _zip_ sound followed by nigh-silent footsteps.

"how are you holding up?" a familiar deep voice to his right asked him.  
"I... am okay. I suppose, it could be worse." it was true, it could be much worse. Asgore opened his eyes again and asked, mildly confused, "I thought you went with them?" The man next to him looked in the direction the others went and shrugged, "eh. you know the surface isn't really my thing, they'll probably be fine without me." A small silence greeted them as the smaller man shifted slightly and Asgore actually looked at the person he was talking to. The wide, pale face of Sans was upturned and looking at the sky as bright scattered stars were making their appearance in the rapidly darkening sky. "Is it still as beautiful as you remember?" Asgore asked, the other chuckled ,"you bet. i wish i brought my telescope." silence yet again. "so, where do we go from here?" Sans asked, Asgore sighed "I don't know, I, uh, wanted to save that for tomorrow honestly." "fair, but we should probably get on it sooner rather than later." Asgore raised his eyebrows, "don't look at me like that asgore, today's an off day." Sans sat eastward and leaned on Asgore's tree.

"Indeed it is." Asgore said with a slight tinge of exasperation, "Sans?" "hm?" "Did you know it was her?" Sans paused, "i had a hunch. she's not that easy to forget." Asgore nodded in agreement, "Well er, if you two are uh..." Sans could guess what Asgore was talking about, "quit being dramatic asgore, if you think i want romance after the stunt she pulled, you're mistaken." the larger man was surprised at the unexpectedly harsh answer, he felt a pat on his arm "'sides, i'm not the type to just leave people in a ditch." the harshness left as soon as it had came. "Thank you." Sans smile perked, "no problem." a pause, then Asgore spoke up dejectedly "I suppose you're right, we probably should get things over with." he sat up slightly, "It's just... what if they ask how we broke free? Would honesty really be the best choice in this situation?" Sans contemplated this question for a moment, "well, it'll get out on it's own eventually, perhaps we shouldn't present ourselves as liars on the first date."

Sans looked at Asgore, "even if we just said 'we thought human souls alone could break the barrier' Waterfalls' old wall writings would give us away." Asgore looked up as if to suggest something, "and no, we're not destroying them. i'd rather not have gerson and every other historian be up our rears for the next century." Sans added with a slight laugh. "You're right, Gerson would NOT be happy with us." Asgore smirked.

"speaking of gerson, we should probably bring him up here to see the sights, get some fresh air..." Sans grin widened, "and complain endlessly about how everything has changed." Asgore hummed, "Things have changed a bit, but really did we expect everything to stay the same?" Sans shook his head, "nah, i'd be surprised if everything was in it's place. have you seen anything familliar?" he asked.

"Oh yes, remember that er, _interesting_ pile of rocks?" Asgore asked, "... oh. really? of all the things that had to still exist." Sans pinched the bridge of his nose, Asgore pointed in the direction of said rocks, "Take a good, long look at it Sans. Bask in all of it's glory." the point became a dramatic sweeping motion as he spoke. "ugh, i don't want to bask in it's "glory"." Sans covered his eyes in emphasis. "Honestly by the time Gerson was done constructing it you looked nearly ready to throw him into the sun." Asgore couldn't help but laugh at the memory, "it definitely crossed my mind a few times." Sans' slightly muffled voice said.

He then asked, still slightly shielding his eyes."... show me it." Asgore gestured to the formation once more and was met by Sans groaning, "oh _no_, it's still terrible." Asgore let out a laugh at the unusually disgusted face of Sans and grabbed his shoulder, "Gerson's gotten a bit better at sculpting nowadays hasn't he?" Sans looked incredulous, "a bit?!" Asgore lightly wheezed at the reaction and tried to rub the tired, humorous tears from his eyes. Sans let out a huff and shook his head, "anything of even slightly better quality to behold up here?", "Well, the old river is still there, though..." Asgore squinted to look at it in the starlight, "actually, I think it's changed direction. Fascinating!" Sans glanced at the river, "it seems you're right. that is interesting."

A comfortable silence fell on them, Sans adjusted his seating and leaned further into the tree, Asgore glanced at him and asked, "I thought you wanted to get things done tonight?" Sans looked back at him, "i mean, i do, but honestly now that i think of it, today has been nuts. it's been less than a day and it's like the past twenty-five years of my life just got poked, y'know?." Asgore nodded and furrowed his brow, "Indeed, I've only been a part of this entire situation for the past few hours, I can't imagine what you've been up to." Sans gestured as he spoke, "oh y'know, making sure the human was fed, didn't get kebabed by undyne," Asgore winced, "checking up on papyrus, the usual stuff i do for you, same old-same old." Sans eyelids lowered, "just with a little extra layer of nuttiness."

"What kind of nuttiness?" Asgore asked, Sans replied, "how do i word this... uh, y'know all of that timeline junk i tried to research a few years ago?" Asgore thought for a moment, "Yes, I think so." "something to do with that, like i'm getting a feeling that this is the time to fire up the old typewriter and record every abnormal thing i feel again." he said.

Asgore shrugged, "Why not? I journal sometimes, it's often cathartic." Sans squinted slightly, "asgore, buddy, i've seen your journal, and i agree, this area is very prone to beautiful, sunny days." "Cathartic, not constructive." Asgore reiterated. "maybe i will." Sans said, "but for now, honestly, i don't really want to do much. i'm still processing it all." Asgore nodded. "Today has been stressful, Toriel returns, the barrier is broken, and the entire Alphys situation has gotten me a tad exhausted."

Asgore paused, "Sans?" "hm?" "I... I know you'll probably say no as you... you've already said no before but, we might need to save a little bit of face here, and honestly the reason we fired our royal scientist probably won't sit well with humans." Sans turned to Asgore, "go on," "Well, we might need another scientist to fill the position so I was wondering if..." Asgore looked back at Sans, who had an unreadable look on his face, but as unreadable as it was Asgore knew what it meant. "You would be willing to come back?" Sans looked mildly agitated, "You wouldn't need to stake any claims to any of your old projects, just as someone to hold down the fort until well, a _real_ replacement comes along." Asgore proposed. Sans sighed "asgore... you _know_ why i don't wanna do that."

Asgore huffed, "Honestly why do you think it's such a bad idea anymore? It's been, what? Two decades since _that_ happened?" Sans lightly scowled, "you don't understand, the second i get in a groove, get things going well for me i get cocky and think i'm invincible, and then whoops! i get too close to the sun and everything is ruined." Asgore shifted to face Sans more, "You don't even have to do anything besides paperwork if you don't want to!" Sans sat up slightly, "but the thing is" he put his hand to his chest, "i _love_ science, that would be like setting you up in a greenhouse and telling you someone else will handle everything. i never thought i'd say this, but doing nothing would be awful."

"I think you've done pretty well so far! The only thing you've worked on was that weird machine in your workshop." Sans didn't respond. "That is the only thing you've worked on right?" "i... might have hung around hotland on occasion." Asgore's eyes widened, "Sans, don't tell me you were invo-" Sans interrupted him, "no, no! i wasn't involved, but i knew about them." Asgore's eyes nearly popped out of his face, "Why didn't you tell me?" "because i wanted alphys to fess up herself." Sans said, "the worst thing i did was leave out a few blueprints." "Why?" Asgore asked, aghast. "i wanted to test her, see if she was actually up for the job, and not just some hopeful who shoved a ghost into a polished pile of scraps." Sans threw his hands up, "i didn't think she'd actually USE the damn thing, it was a 'build it and see if it turned on' kind of deal.".

Asgore pinched the bridge of his snout, "You couldn't have picked one that didn't do anything?" Sans furrowed his brow, "i didn't think she could even decipher the prints' let alone get it to do what it was supposed to." Sans thought for a moment, "its... actually rather impressive that she worked it out, i should really use a different set of symbols one of these days." Asgore sighed, "Sans, you could've at least given me a heads-up, I could have sent her an assistant or... something. Anything would've been better.".

To that, Sans' face scrunched up, "an assistant? asgore you and i both know royal scientists don't have assistants." "No, _you_ didn't have assistants." Asgore snipped, "Perhaps she would have benefited from having someone to work with." he said thoughtfully. Sans rolled his eyes, "oh yeah, someone getting paid to pry into your work, sounds real nice." "We're not talking about you Sans," Asgore said firmly, "you're right, it would be _worse_. she can barely talk to her friends without stuttering let alone some rando trying to get information on her deepest, darkest secrets, like that would go over well." Asgore scoffed, "Why are you so averse to assistance? Is that not what you've been doing for me?" irritation was pricking at Sans' voice as he said, "uh, no, i'm not on payroll for doing toriels old busywork."

"Why can't you just do this for me?" Asgore said, a mix of exasperation and slight desperation was tinting his voice, "why does it have to be me? couldn't you look at some high-marked college students or something?" Sans halfheartedly suggested. "Because you're the most qualified person I know right now," the boss monster reasoned, "and screening new people takes time, precious time we could use for diplomacy." he continued, "You already know the ins-and-outs, and I-I just know you, you're familiar, I know I can trust you with things." Asgore finished, Sans, while unimpressed, crossed his arms in thought. Asgore, taking this as an uncertain 'no' continued to bargain, "We could, I don't know, write up a new law stating that the royal judge uptakes empty positions and pretend it's been in the books for the past century so no address need to be made... maybe?" Sans squinted, "what's up with you and lying today?" he asked, "I'm trying to figure out what you want, do you not want it to be made public? I'm sure I could excuse that." Asgore replied, letting out a small yawn.

Sans sat up slightly, "that's not, well, that's not my _main_ issue. i... i just want the past to stay in the past, y'know?" with those last words Sans seemed to unbristle, Asgore smiled bittersweetly, "Don't I ever." Sans continued, "that, and i'm already doing so much around the Underground, i just don't think i could handle another responsibility, let alone _this_ one. ... i'm getting a little worn out, i don't want to _cripple_ myself." Sans laughed dryly. Asgore was mildly perturbed and reassuringly wrapped his arm around the others' shoulders. Sans gingerly leaned into the embrace and shut his eyes, "maybe we could work something out, after all the 'guard has pretty much been abolished by now hasn't it?" Asgore thought for a moment, "Yes, but officially? No." Sans nodded, "so it would be a little weird for a sentry, who knows the guard has been disbanded to be running around doing sentry things." "Okay, so strike sentry duty from your schedule, uh, what else, a pay raise?" Asgore asked, Sans reopened his eyes, "i kind of expected that from taking a 3rd job." he said sardonically. Asgore blinked tiredly, "... Oh, yes, whoops."

"what, 'you falling asleep on me big guy?" Sans said, patting the large arm resting on his shoulder, Asgore yawned lightly, "Trying not to." "understandable, as it's..." Sans pulled out his cellphone and looked at the time, "yeesh, 11:54." Sans turned back to Asgore, who was undoubtedly trying not to doze off. "should we finish this tomorrow? we have a big day ahead of us, we can discuss the details later." Sans suggested. "Yes, tomorrow would work. ... Thank you." Asgore sleepily said, "hey don't thank me yet, let me sleep on it, alright?" Sans said, letting out a yawn of his own, Asgore, though very tired looked uncertain, "Alright, goodnight Sans." "g'night."

-

Time passed, Asgores unnaturally gentle snores drifted through the air and Sans' phone read '3:48', the phones' owner was still wide awake, still leaned into the Boss Monster's arm and looking up at the sky. Sans grasped the phone and sent a text:

_3:49 AM_  
_Sans: "hey alph, hows things?"_

_3:53 AM_  
_Alphys: "Sans why are u texting me at 4 am"_

_Sans: "just checking in"_

_Alphys: "Okayy, we're pretty good, the queen had us make camp near this statue looking thing," _  
_ "It kind of looks like you lmafo"_

_Sans: "i see. well, okay, can you do me a solid?"_

_Alphys: "Yea sure"_

_Sans: "don't tell the humans you got fired"_

_Alphys: "Why?"_

_Sans: "just don't."_

_Alphys: "Ok... hey btw where are u and Asgore, u guys are suck flakes"_  
_ "*such"_

_Sans: "nowhere important, anywho, that's all i had to say."_

_Alphys: "Okay, i'm going to try to go to sleep then, gnight."_

_Sans: "goodnight."_

Theorising

* * *

  
this didn't fit in the end notes again lmfao

The characters in question: Sans and Asgore.  
Yeah those two characters that most people think don't know eachother at all & they fight over Toriel because why not lol.

1) that's bs, they 100% know each other or are at the VERY least friendly aquantences.

2) the fighting over Toriel thing is stupid, has always been stupid, and will always be stupid for reasons i'll probably mention here.

also a note: i'm going full throttle in this chapter because i LOVE theorizing in depth. this is very inspired by a tumblr post i saw ages ago and i'll link it if possible but it's elusive so it might take a minute (some of my points come from that post).

Alright, lets get started.

Part One: Evidence  
(Headcanon will be labeled as {HC})

\-----------------------  
Fully Canon:  
\-----------------------  
-They work within two rooms of each other

-Sans is a fairly well known figure in the Underground  
(time slots in the MTT Resort,  
everyone in Snowdin seems to know him,  
calls himself popular at one point,  
"WAIT, ALPHYS, I DIDN'T KNOW YOU KNEW SANS."  
"Well... I..."  
"doesn't everybody?")  
(Followed promptly by Toriel forgetting who Sans is a second later lmao.)

-Asgore apparently acts as Santa, Papyrus has described Santa, implying that Asgore has visited Snowdin

-Papyrus calls Asgore "Mr. Dreemurr" and MK said that's what they called him in school, once again implying that Papyrus has met Asgore (enough to call him a fuzzy pushover) thus increasing the chance that Sans knows or at least has met him as well.  
(Papyrus has also just called him Asgore similarly to Undyne and Alphys (monsters who have personally met him and know him semi-personally, increasing those chances even more.))

-They share a theme, "The Choice" and in the newest remix of Megaloviania (the SSBU version) Asgore's theme makes an appearance.  
(and before you say it's Toriel's, it's not, her version of Heartache and Asgore's versions have different BPMs. It's Asgore's.)

-They can both tell how many times you've died in their fights.  
(I'm also pretty sure Toriel can do something similar as she comments on you "looking like you've seen a ghost" and how that can't be right, possibly alluding to the fact that she can't believe you might have killed her.)  
(No one else comments on their own possible deaths, just "you seem familiar" deja vu afaik)

\-----------------------  
Semi-Speculative:  
\-----------------------

-Someone that isn't Undyne is assigning Sans to sentry stations, as far as i know Undyne is at the top of the Royal Guard chain so who tf has the authority to hire him to Royal Guard stations without her knowledge and why?  
(A quote from Undyne, "Who the heck keeps hiring this guy!?")

-Adding onto that, I don't think he's actually a sentry aside from /maybe/ the station in Snowdin (even though there's already 4 sentries there :/ ) as hes' "/heard/ being a sentry pays well." and Papyrus nor Undyne know where his paycheck comes from. Hellloo discrepancies.

-Asgore doesn't do that well alone, so by that logic SOMEONE had to have helped him along, and that someone probably shouldn't praise and compliment the guy endlessly like every other monster you meet, that and the similarities between Sans and Toriel makes Sans a fair candidate.

-Sans' "important info" post could apply to Asgore when he goes into the "something in their life led them to this point" part.

\-----------------------  
Could Be Coincidence:  
\-----------------------

-STMPWYFS has a really dumb name, and people have even joked about Asgore naming it.

-Sans tried to bake a motherfuckin butterscotch pie. dude.

\------------------------------------------------  
Part 2: Possible Counter Arguments  
\------------------------------------------------

-Sans could just be in the Judgement Hall for exposition purposes, he might not actually work there.  
Nah.

1) The rooms' name is room_sanscorridor meaning that it's not just some random location that he's in but a place he's supposed to appear or a place that he owns, similarly to rooms like room_undynebridge or room_asghouse1-3

2) He has a formal speech prepared for us when we encounter him, and the weird formality of it makes it seem like he's probably done it before.

3) In his fight, he flat-out calls this his job.

4) In the neutral endings, specifically the Papyrus and Alphys endings, Sans has been described as "handling the paperwork" and "working hard" by Papyrus, "a good guy" by Alphys and according to her is making a positive impact in her life by doing whatever he's doing. i don't know about you but official government paperwork isn't exactly something you'd expect a hot dog sentry guy to be experienced in and we're given no explanation as to how he knows what he's doing, and whatever he's doing seems to be helping Alphys a lot, so it could also be work of the same type (which would be a bit of a stress relief).

5) Sans is a weirdo but i don't think he would go so far as to break into a royal castle w/ guards to spew some profound words of wisdom to an 8-year old for shits and giggles

-Asgore could be an exception to the "Sans knowing everyone" bit.  
Fair, but unlikely.

-If Sans knows Asgore so well why was Asgore so surprised to see the human?  
Sans didn't even tell Undyne about the human, it's not so farfetched that he wouldn't tell Asgore.

-SSBU Megaloviania isn't canon  
Maybe, but it was made by Toby and even if it isn't canon ingame it's still a nod to them being associated because it's practically on the same level as Bonetrousle at this point.

\-----------------------

-There might be people in certain areas that manage sentries that aren't Undyne.  
I highly doubt that, no one other than Undyne, Sans and other guard members talk about sentries.

-Asgore could've handled fine on his own.  
Uh, no. The guy was so depressed by the end of your fight that he didn't want to live anymore, and by the end of one of your fights he literally kills himself. He's not exactly the most stable guy and the departure of Toriel after the death of his kids and forcing himself to murder 6 more is literally the worst scenario I have ever heard, he would absolutely need help.

\-----------------------

-It might not have been a butterscotch pie.  
Something yellow/gold and sugary that isn't egg using a pie tin and isn't a quiche that you have to bake. I dunno about you but that sounds like a pie made with butterscotch, a substance mentioned several times in the game that has significance.

-How would Sans have gotten a recipe for Bscotch Pie?  
Asgore has plethoras in his garbage can.

\------------------------------------------------  
{HC} Part Three: Headcanon-Heavy Thoughts  
\------------------------------------------------

I am a huge supporter of a father/daughter relationship between Undyne and Asgore, however, as lovely as this scenario is, it would be kind of hard to have such a relationship in-between regular royal duties (if he was alone) and training her well enough to become captain in the span of ~20 years, but, someone helping Asgore with royal junk could be a huge commodity for this as it would probably clear up some of his schedule (he canonically seems to have enough time on his hands to take long walks around the kindom) or even help out when he's unavailable. Now obviously there's probably people that work for him but he lost a big helper when Toriel left as she was often referred as the brains behind the kingdom.

Most everything else headcanon-wise here is based on other theories I have, which you may have caught a whiff of in the fic and previous chapters. A big thing is on the horizon.

Oh, I forgot something, the "fighting over Toriel is stupid" thing, frankly, they're adults. They probably handle things like adults and don't act like teenagers, like c'mon now. Plus I always got the impression that Sans doesn't like Toriel remotely as much as the fandom thinks he does (for example: when they meet, to me it was kind of... awkward? at least on Sans' end).


	6. Shooting The Breeze (Edited)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Set quite a bit before the events of the game.  
_"maybe all you needed was... i dunno, some good food, some bad laughs, some nice friends."_
> 
> Sorry this was so late, over the holidays things just got hectic and this chapter is the longest yet!  
(I had to rush on the art a little, soz)
> 
> EDIT: changed a few things in the theory section, i wrote the previous draft at like 2 AM  
there's also additional info in the Boss Monster part

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woo hypothetical friendships ftw  
this is 75% dialogue practice

"as if i belong here." 

A wrinkled tortoise monster rolled his remaining eye as he dug into his food, "Of course you belong 'ere," he paused to swallow, "-you've belonged here since the day you came." The other man was about to respond but was interrupted by a hearty knock on the door at the end of the room. "It's open!" the tortoise shouted, the paneled door creaked open to reveal a male and female boss monster shrouded in raincoats. "You're supposed to say 'who's there'!" the lady pouted; her voice trying to fight the volume of the underground downpours of Waterfall, "Apologies Captain, we hope we aren't late." The male said apologetically, avoiding scraping the door frame with his horns. The larger creatures hung up their coats and maneuvered their way through the clutter of the mudroom, "Nah, you're right on time; Sans has even started questioning his existence." The lady snorted, "Already?" the man in question shrugged, "hey, at least i have a reason to, tori." and sent a quick glare in Gerson's direction, who chortled at the look. 

"Hohoh, may I?" the larger boss monster asked, gesturing to the small feast covering the table; "Course' Asgore, take a seat y'old goats." the old goats obliged, the seats slightly creaked under their weight. "So," Asgore started, reaching over and piling his plate, "what have we been up to lately? Aside from questioning our place in the world." Sans scooted a dish of casserole in Toriels' direction and replied "cleaning up the lab, that last test was a disaster." He poked at a piece of lettuce stranded on the edge of his salad bowl, "lemme tell ya, magic lasers may look cool but they're a pain in the ass to make." he paused to take a drink, "might take another month 'gorey" he looked apologetic. "Granted. I'd prefer if you didn't rush yourself." Asgore replied.

Toriel nodded, scarfing down a bite of casserole, "Irndeed. ...Oh! Hrve you-" she swallowed her food, "_ahem_, have you heard any news on that house you were talking about?" Sans thought for a moment, idly waving his fork trying to remember the town's name. "you mean the one in snowdin?" Toriel nodded, "Mhmm." "yeah, as far as i know there's a little bit of trouble with the zoning, they feel it might be a bit too close to the river." Toriels brow raised, "personally, i think it's bogus; there's already a thirty foot buffer to it _and_ a section of the woods around it." 

Gerson finished off one of his plates, "I think you're too used to Hotlands' zoning permits, rivers are a bit trickier than lava pits," he paused to take a bite, "one day they're totally calm and then the next day you can kiss your sea cucumbers goodbye." he added, looking wistfully outside his window into his now waterlogged garden. Asgore sighed, "Alas, that's the one thing I don't like about Waterfall; you can never keep a good garden." Gerson thought for a second, "Well, those echo flowers are pretty hardy, same with those, uh... whatchamacallit uhh... sausage-lookin' plants." Asgore raised an eyebrow, "Sausage plants?" Sans lowly snorted, "the hell is a sausage plant?" 

Gerson mentally grasped for an explanation, "They're like these tall stalked plants that grow by the rivers, and they have a weird sausage shaped pod on'em, you've seen 'em, they're about my height-" Sans laughed again, "that's not very tall." Gerson tried his best to looked genuinely offended, "You're one to talk, Mr. 5-foot nothin'." Sans returned the fake offence, "5'1" actually, i grew an inch." Gerson grinned, "What, in the past millennia? God, at that rate you'll be 6-foot when you turn 10,000." Sans snickered at the thought of that. 

"I think I know the plant you're talking about," Toriel said, stifling a chuckle, "I believe it's called 'Typha'." "_Typhus_?" Gerson asked, "As in, the _disease_ Typhus?" "What? No, Ty-_Fa_." Toriel enunciated. "They grow around the New Home beach; I'd send it to Sans for research but you're a bit busy with the sea grass, right?" Sans eyes briefly widened and he avoided her gaze, "oh! yeah, right. sea grass... _right._" he coughed into his hand awkwardly and took a sip from his glass. Toriel rolled her eyes affectionately, "Take your time." she said, sipping her drink, "Mm, Gerson?" "Yeah?" Gerson paused his noshing, "What kind of tea is this? It's lovely!" she said, taking another sip. "'Found some teabags in the dump," Toriel instinctively choked on her drink. "Weh heh heh! Kidding, kidding, I got it from a place here in Waterfall; it's chamomile." Toriel let out a relieved chuckle and the conversation took a pause as most of the group fully concentrated on their food. 

"What, does it smell bad?" Gerson asked Sans, "nah, i just... i dunno." Sans shrugged, still picking at that stray leaf of lettuce that had now made its way onto his plate. Gerson squinted, "That existential baloney still eatin' at you?" Sans waved dismissively, "it's nothing to worry yourself about." he belatedly started into his dinner. Gerson cast a withering look at Sans before saying, "Too late, spill the beans smartass." "how about you let me _eat_ my beans, you sauteed them with garlic this time." Sans retorted, wolfing down said legumes. 

“It’s not about you being… well, _you_, is it?” Toriel asked probingly, Gerson sighed, “Oh for gods sake, Sans, tell me, how long have us four bozos known each other?” Sans thought for a moment, face scrunching, “too long.” Gerson lightly chuckled, “Heh, very true, anyways how many of those long, _long_ years have we cared where any of us came from?” Asgore opened his mouth to speak, “Not counting the years I didn’t know you, I'm pretty sure you _had_ to care way back then.” Gerson interrupted, Asgore nodded in confirmation. Sans idled, “eh, maybe like a year? give or take, you were pretty suspicious at first.” Gerson shrugged, “It's not every day you meet a bunch of not-quite monsters." Gerson rubbed his chin for a moment, "In fact to this day I'm still trying to understand what breed of freaks you three are, I just know you're tough as rocks and have freaky eyes." "Very observant," Asgore teased, "I know," Gerson grinned "but that aint the point, the point is that I don't care whether you guys were booted, whether you ran away, were left behind, sent out on some crazy mission or whatever the hell else. All I know is that you're my friends and that the Underground wouldn't be the same without ya' so don't even think for a second that you don't belong."

Toriel smiled and added on, "In my opinion, 'belonging' is a little flawed, I think that anyone can make a place for themselves anywhere as long as you work for it." two and a half pairs of eyes flicked to her, "And really, if there's one thing that we've all done, it's work. We may not be the best people but I'll be damned if we haven't worked for what we have." Gerson clapped his hands together, "Well said, see Sans? We're all tough old beasts that fought for their place in life, and that includes you and your fancy laboratory." he ended the statement pointing at the other male. 

"alright, alright, i get it," Sans said, slightly exasperated, still picking tentatively at his food "can i eat now? my stew is getting cold from all these speeches." he teased. Gerson chuckled, "Jerk, we're here pouring our hearts out for you and all you can think of is stew?" Sans grin lifted slightly, "hey, i don't want any heart juices in my food, _nasty_." the tortoise clicked his tongue and scuffed Sans' shoulder, cracking him up. The two boss monsters smiled at their squabbling friends affectionately, themselves returning to their food briefly before Asgore spoke up, "So what should we do this time around? We hiked around for new caves last month, so what else?" Toriel looked up, "Maybe we could... hm." she squinted her eyes in thought, "bar crawl?" Sans suggested "Hah! you wish. The castle has much nicer alcohol anyway." Toriel reasoned, "it's cheap though." he responded, "Sans you literally don't pay a single coin for castle liquor, I see you grab a bottle from the wine cellar at _least_ once a month." 

"Which by the way," Toriel continued, "our head chef does _not_ appreciate you taking bottles of Cabernet the day before royal banquets." Sans put his hands up, "in my defense, it was delicious." Gerson snorted, "You took a bottle of, what, 500G wine before the June banquet? Stars above, I'm surprised that cook didn't fry you!" Sans laughed nervously, shrugging further. Toriel smiled and shook her head, "Perhaps we could... ...urgh, I can't think of anything." she was quickly becoming frustrated with herself. "Asgore, dear, do you have any ideas?" she asked turning to meet an empty chair. Asgore had since started busying himself with cleaning up his and Toriels' side of the table "Asgore?" she repeated. Putting a plate in the distant sink he called back, "Sorry, what was that?" "Do you have any ideas on what we should do?" a brief silence, "Uh... not at the moment, apologies." Toriel pursed her lips in mild disappointment. 

She tapped her glass with her claws, silently willing someone else to come up with plans for the rest of the night. Sans leaned back in his chair "maybe we could just stay in for the night, y'know, crack open a beer and shoot the breeze." "Piss in the wind" Gerson echoed, Sans half-suppressed a chuckle, "_snnrk_, not quite how i'd word it, but... yeah." Toriel hummed thoughtfully, "Perhaps," Gerson pulled at his beard for a moment, "Oh, by the way I _was_ actually looking in the dump yesterday," he got up and moved towards a nearby shelf, "You didn't pick up any tea did you?" Toriel asked, grinning slightly. "Heheh nah, something much better." Asgore reentered the room, "What did you find?" Gerson ran a claw over a stack of vinyl covers before pulling one from its place and holding it in front of him, reading the writing on the back of the water damaged sleeve, "Aha! Abbey Road, nineteen-sixty-nine." Toriels eyes widened, "Oh, I've been hoping a copy would drift down here!" Sans looked intrigued, "is it a bootleg?" a slightly smug look was pasted on the tortoises face, "Nope, and it plays like a damn charm!" Sans grin widened, "_nice_!". 

Sans continued, "so are we stayin' in or what? cause if we are," he got up from his eat and pointed a thumb at the door, "i'm gonna go get some drinks." Gerson peered at the window, "It's pouring out there, you planning on getting rainwater or somethin'?" Gerson asked, "nah, i know a shortcut home." Sans winked. "'Course you do," Gerson rolled his eye, Sans got up from his seat and headed towards the mudroom, "i mean, it's New Years; the big turn of the decade, why not have some fun?" he shrugged on his way out but turned around briefly to say, "and don't you _dare_ listen to that record without me."

###### Theorizing

Note: This is very long, but I have a lot of evidence to go over and trust me, this time around it ain't just about Sans.  
This also **HEAVILY** pertains to Deltarune, if you haven't played it or seen anything of it, this might not make any sense (but really what UT fan hasn't played DR yet, c'mon it's almost 2020)

Another Note:  
This chapter's theory discussion is a extension of CH.4's theories, that being the "Sans is a Darkner". Now, re-reading that section of chapter four made me realize some things,

  1. I suck at formatting
  2. I suck at organizing my stuff
  3. I really shot myself in the foot by using old fanfictions, like ew lmao that writing was atrocious.

So to improve upon that, below are a couple revised/clarified passages from the original section:

> _*Also if any of you say that the blood is ketchup after reading why it can't be ketchup, i'm officially disowning you._   
_And it can't be marrow either because that's not how bones work and Papyrus doesn't bleed._   
_And it's not Determination because Sans never revived nor did Undyne bleed DT, she just melted._
> 
> *It can't be ketchup because:  
1) Why in the everloving hell would it be coming out of his mouth if you slashed him across his front  
2) HEX codes don't mean anything, there can be serious differences between MSPaint's color palette (where that shade of red and many other colors in Undertale come from) and Gamemaker's default colors and the game's colors are subject to change in Undertale's updates, thus making it an unreliable source.  
3) Blood, believe it or not, is relatively similar in color to ketchup, once again nullifying the HEX thing, the only way to prove it is if we saw whatever came out of Sans congeal, but we don't, he waltzes off-screen.
> 
> _**During my evaluation of Sans' sprites (the real ones), I noticed that right half of his face is weirdly lopsided in comparison: his right eye is slightly offset symmetry-wise, his right pupil is looking more to the right than the left pupil is and the right side of his smile looks more stretched out and the fact that he's facing straight forward means that it's not an angle thing. (I'm talking about the default expression) _
> 
> **Sans talksprites and battle sprites are actually totally different, his talksprites are more geometrical but my initial point stands as his face is equally skewed in both.

If you need a full refresher or haven't read it yet, here's the pastebin: <https://pastebin.com/raw/WeWfBfdQ>

THIS LINK WAS BROKEN FOR FOUR MONTHS, SORRY LMAO

\------------------------------------------------

_(A lot of this was discussed in the comments of chapter four, however, I felt that this much new info deserved it's own chapter, so some of this is ripped straight from there.)_  
Now, onto the extensions!

Something that, in my experience being in this fandom, is fairly common is comparing Sans to some kind of wild card/joker, which honestly I can see why. However, that statement is pretty innaccurate from what I can tell from canon sources. He's calculated, he isn't random at all, and really the only thing I can think of is that fact that he's a comedian.  
HOWEVER.  
It's important to mention that in context of what I'm putting on the table, the joker card places in the Dark World have already been filled by Jevil and Seam (or other similar parties) based on the alternate names of real joker cards, "The Jester" and "The Magician" as Seam was a court magician and Jevil is obviously some kind of jester.  
So, if he isn't a joker then what is he?

If he is in fact related to the Card Castle residents, I'm putting my money on him being an Ace. Not a King, not a Jack, (definitely not a Queen) but the Ace of Spades.

\------------------------------------------------  
Spade Relations  
\------------------------------------------------

\- Color palette: Spades share Sans' colors; blue, black and white. The only thing that's different is that Sans might wear pink slippers, though that hasn't actually been showcased canonically.

\- Smiles: Spades, based on their appearances and symbols definitely have a focus on their lovely, uneven grins; from the portraits on Card Castles' walls, one of their crests and the overall design of Card Castle itself, now, Darkners in general seem to have this motif but none focus on it more than the Spades. The legend's depictions of Darkners also show a grinning member of the Spade family.

\- Names: A little on the speculative side, but Sans and Lancers' names have the common factor of French origin, modern playing cards were also a French originated invention that introduced spades to the deck. While we don't know King Spade's name, it could also follow this rule.

\- Similar Interests: Once again, a little speculative as interests depend on personalities and such, but it's a little hard to ignore the common interests of Sans and Lancer; such as building machines and selling questionable food at possibly illegal food stands.  
(also amassing large amounts of money and SFX based humor ie: cartoon splat noises and whoopie cushions)

Left Handedness: Sans, Lancer and King Spade are all lefties, they use weapons, magic, etc. with their lefts; handedness is mostly genetic. Plus on a visual standpoint, Sans keeping his right hand in his jacket while he's using magic can be paralleled with King Spade holding his cape half-closed with his right hand and holding his weapon w/ his left.

\------------------  
Gaster Blasters  
\------------------  
Gaster Blasters might also have a spade motif to them.

-Connecting the natural curves of the eyes and the top of the weird nose line gives you a spade shape

-The GB's crests resemble King Spade's crown and possibly the neck/shoulder part of his cape

-And a GB's nose resembles King Spade's when he isn't snarling at you, this might also apply to Sans if he stopped smiling (mouth shape evidently effects the shape of their noses seen in the below graphic.)  
Also on the topic of noses, Sans, Lancer, and King Spade's noses translate to the same shape in their overworld sprites.

GB's also have a weird line going up their faces similar to King Spade when he closes his eyes and from what I can tell from Lancer's overworld sprites, the same may apply to him.  
The difference in nose shape actually could be perspective as King Spade is facing straight forward and GB's are at an angle which honestly raises the question of that GB's look like facing forward

But I might have an idea;

The fog from Snowdin, which has been theorized to be either a front facing GB or _Sans' face_, and to be honest with you, I think based on the shape of the eyes and the seeming lack of depth shown it's much more likely to be Sans if anything at all.

Something you should note, look between the mouth and the nose and you should notice a definite line connecting the two as well as a shaded area extending from the nose upwards between the eyes, both things that Spades have been shown to have.

\------------------------------------------------  
Numeric Values  
\------------------------------------------------  
\- In the Dark World the card hierarchy is evidenced to follow the rules of poker (based on the "Royal Flush" joke), that being; Ace, King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, ...etc. This leads to Aces having incredibly finicky numeric values where they can equal /1/ or 14, this is relevant to Sans as one of his most notable traits is that all of his stats are listed as 1.

\- 14, as stated before, is the highest numeric value a card can be, why this is relevant to Sans is because; while he only has 1's for stats, he is somehow the /most/ difficult enemy in the game, to the point where even by Bullet Hell standards some of his attacks are considered brutal.  
(especially the circle of blasters, jesus fuck)  
That, combined with the "Easiest Enemy" quote is not only a slap in the face, but it's also paradoxical, he's somehow the weakest enemy while also being the strongest, which mirrors the Ace being the highest/lowest card.  
(I'm not counting Omega Flowey and Asriel GOHD when saying strongest enemies because they have multiple human souls, thus not being a fair comparison)

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Meanings and More Paradoxes (mildly speculative)  
\------------------------------------------------

\- Aces of Spades have been noted throughout history to be connected to death, bad omens and endings. Sans is practically surrounded by bad omens, he gives them and he is the subject of bad omens and warnings, for example;  
The most well known example of this is _"you're gonna have a bad time"_ which is straight up a bad omen, Riverperson says, _"Beware the man from another world."_ while I'm not sure if Sans is this man, (I think he is due to him probably being a Darkner but it's not concrete.) if he is then Riverperson finds him ominous to some degree.  
Then, totally concrete this time, is Flowey's warning about him telling us to not _"let him find out ANYTHING about you."_ imo this warning is easily the most worrying as according to Flowey, Sans made him /reset/, which as established in the game is a near-total wipe of a timeline to a certain point and it's not clear as to what Sans did to _make_ Flowey resort to a reset.

\- On the topic of endings, it's pretty common knowledge that Sans starts every ending phone call although he usually ends up handing it to another person aside from the "No King Ending", "Impossible/Dirty Hacker Ending" and the "Dog Ending" when it pertains to him being alone, with a party that can't talk or when it concerns the games framework, mechanics and/or code.  
Then there's the mentions of the end of your journey, while other characters seem to stray away from the subject or get noticeably uncomfortable (for good reason), Sans is the only one to actually talk about it with 0 levels of hyperbole or avoiding the topic and talks about the ultimatum of you and Asgore's encounter directly.

-Conflicting messages, the Ace of Spades means a lot of different things, it has very positive meanings like excellence and luck, slightly less positive include lacking morals, being badly dressed/unclean, or straight up terrible connotations like war and death. Sans fits into that very nicely because he himself has very paradoxical beliefs and actions, he thinks killing is weakness yet he gets snarky and mildly arrogant in battle (that fact that he fights you at all is conflicting), he'll watch as you kill hundreds of monsters and then implies that this wouldn't have happened if he stepped in (yet he doesn't :| ) , even his general attitudes in the judgement hall and out of it conflict, and the fact that he's somehow the weakest enemy and the strongest isn't only paradoxical but it fits into the 1-14 thing perfectly.

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(Lack of) Design  
\------------------------------------------------

It's uncertain what the aces design is supposed to be, kanotynes original designs only have the ace as the thing on king spade's stomach which doesn't tell us much as it's used for every single other spade card, and based off of how the poker hierarchy works, it doesn't fit as aces are part of a royal flush, so it's entirely possible for Sans (who already looks related to the spades) to be a variation of the spade suit. Plus, Temmie hasn't followed the original designs to a T; such as King Spade's crown, or any of the spades' accessories, there have been some changes between the designs and the game. I mean, after all we don't even know what any of the queens look like so it's not that far-fetched for aces to be in the same boat.

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Other Card/Game Things I Missed the First Time (might not mean anything)  
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-If you die to Sans 7 times, he mentions that _"that's supposed to be a lucky number"_ and mentions winning a _jackpot_ and the number _"increasing by tenfold."_

-Also on the topic of gambling and card games, (this is, by my own standards, non-canon but it may be a nod.) in the official artbook it was mentioned that Sans was supposed to run a _poker table_ but then comments on the lack of a casino in the Underground. 

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Darkners Purpose  
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_(This is a little bit more of a discussion instead of evidence, but I think it's pretty important considering the theory in question.)_

Something brought up in Deltarune is a "Darkner's Purpose", essentially Darkners were first created to be helpers/familiars/guides/etc. of lightners, so that kind of brings Sans' relationships with other characters into question. (minus Asgore and Toriel, i'll bring that up later) Because according to Ralsei, assisting lighters is a way to make darkners feel fulfilled in life or whatever, which is a little sketch imo, but maybe it'll be brought up again in future DR chapters, and one of the relationships I've seen brought up in relation to this fulfillment thing is Sans and Papyrus.

Honestly if Sans is a Darkner, I don't think he would play into that stuff; like, he would take a more Gerson-ish approach to it, ie: oh that's neat but it doesn't actually hold any bearing in my life, plus even if Sans is fulfillment attached to Papyrus, that 'purpose' baloney is like 200% backed by by genuine affection and care for his well-being, like in Deltarune, it's brought up that maybe this happy feeling wasn't caused by being fulfilled but being with friends and people you care about.

Another weirdly common trope in this fandom is that some people (not everyone) seem to think that Papyrus and/or Toriel are are the only people Sans strongly cares about and thats? not?? true??? like, at all???? There are plenty of examples of him caring for other individuals, ofc the papyrus lines, but him possibly taking Undyne home if you don't give her water, giving her a job and practically letting her live on his couch in one of the neutral endings, him _discreetly_ helping Alphys with her amalgamate problem, helping whatever ruler of the underground with their crap in other neutral endings and almost trying to dissuade you from fighting Asgore (_"is what you have to do, really worth it?"_)  
The dude CARES, like a LOT. He doesn't just run off to a secluded room and cry after you decapitate Papyrus. i feel that in the genocide route he just kind of separates himself, ironically doing the thing he tells you about in the judgement hall, distancing himself (sometimes literally) so he doesn't get hurt, only breaking that facade to make you feel bad, kick your ass, or to tell you to go to hell. The affection that he feels for others is only shown when they aren't dead so he won't feel like absolute garbage when you kill them and he doesn't step in but other than that, he watches you fight, he sees if you turn back or not, once again he doesn't just run and get depressed and then returns at the last minute angry and revenge-driven.  
If anything, he's more angry when you _abandon _a genocide route lmao he even mocks you for sucking at being evil.

\------------------------------------------------  
Side Theory: Boss Monsters (are suspicious as _hell_.) **[might make this into it's own chapter, we'll see.]**  
\------------------------------------------------  
  


I can't believe I didn't realize this sooner, but boss monsters may be connected to Darkners and the origin of the Deltarune.  
And, to clarify, I'm talking about Undertale's Toriel and Asgore, not Deltarune but I will bring it up later. 

A few things that always stood out to me:

-Colored eyes (and Asgore's trident) Only present in battle sprites.  


-Fundamentally different souls, ie: they exist briefly before breaking and a slightly different shape. 

-Asgore also has the ability to shade himself out,   


-Boss monsters are treated as if they're a _superior_ sub species and that's kind of weird because it's not as if humans have some superhuman race stronger than everyone else.

But now, with the introduction of Deltarune and it's lore, there's a whole lot more:  
  


-Castletown's name, it's... really dumb. Something that's been seen w/ Asgore.

-Ralsei's boss monster-esque appearance

-Castletown's crest, quite literally the royal family's crest in UT and how it's ruled by Ralsei, who, previously mentioned, looks like a Boss Monster

-Lancer/Toriel's mercy tactics, they both avoid hurting you; similar to how Sans and King Spade both quite literally stab you in the back. 

-Entire tutorial section, Ralsei's lessons are very reflective of Toriel's although Ralsei actually teaches you how to fight and you both exit through a giant door that leads to a forest.

-Connections between Ralsei hiding in shadows/Asgore shading out, Asgore and Toriel's eyes either stand out or glow, implying that if they shaded out they would be able to replicate Ralsei's usual appearance.

-To clarify, I'm assuming Toriel can do the same things as Asgore, and vice versa

-Further knowledge of resets, Toriel and Asgore seem to recall previous battles ie: getting killed/killing you with Toriel's _"you look as if you've seen a ghost ... no that can't be."_ line, and Asgore nodding sadly after you tell him how many times he's killed you. This kind of knowledge seems to be a available to a small population of Underground inhabitants; the only others being Sans and, surprisingly, Gerson; who knows that you can't attack merchants and states that _"knowledge like that is the only reason I've lived so long."_

-Darkners were said to be guides of Lightners, Toriel kind of fulfills this role. 

-There is an alternate version of the UT opening with a Loox instead of a Boss Monster, now wouldn't it make more sense to use the Loox ver. as it represents regular monsters (the vast majority) instead of the special, super strong subspecies that literally only has two individuals?

Also, on the topic of the opening screens, Toriel, (i assume based on appearance, also possibly younger.) still has the Delta Rune on her dress;

** _Something that should not exist on the surface, in that time period. _ **

For context, in Undertale, the Delta Rune to the (regular) monsters symbolizes the Angel freeing them from the Underground. This concept didn't even **exist** before the barrier came up. This is either a _GIANT_ plot hole in Undertale or she's wearing a symbol that originated from the Darkners.

\------------------  
(Boss Monsters) More Speculative Things  
\------------------

\- Toriel, if calling her multiple times at the leaf pile SAVE point, will say: "_Why not use your imagination to divert yourself? __Pretend you are... __A monarch! __Rule over the leaf pile with a fist of iron. Can you do that for me?" _Ruling a kingdom with an iron fist is not a particularly _nice _way to rule over people, in fact that's more of a _tyrant_, actually. *cough*

\- Speaking of Toriel, she, for whatever reason, doesn't really have the nicest opinion on monsters despite being their Queen. She thinks that they're all going to attack/kill you even though them "attacking" you is stated in-game to be a form of self expression, not actually attacks. The monsters in the Ruins are _scared_ of her, once again, not good as you shouldn't be afraid of your leader and she actively traps them there by keeping the Ruins door sealed.   
(This reminds me of Sans and his _"cave full of skeletons and **horrible monsters**__."_ line as well as him calling Papyrus a human hunting _fanatic_.)

\- Asgore, at the end of his fight, when explaining his plan states that when the barrier is broken and the humans are eradicated, that _monsters_ would rule the surface in peace. It doesn't seem that he intends to rule them during this time period

\- A possible counter argument that I thought up could be when Flowey says "humans, monsters, everyone" and on monsters he shifts to Toriels face implying that Boss Monsters are still monsters. However, since Flowey = Asriel, how could he know any better? He grew up in a place where his parents were the King and Queen of monsters, why would he have any reason to think that they weren't monsters themselves? 

\- Monster society in UT generally seems to have the same social structure as the Darkners, you have a monarchy; ruled by a king and/or queen, with different areas forming a kingdom. The only real difference is that in the Darkners' case there seems to be room for more than one monarchy with the presence of Ralsei and his (empty) town or perhaps it's just a small state or province. Hell it might even be something like the Vatican considering the now religious undertone of the Delta Rune. Anyway, my point is; while the monsters could have been a monarchy in the first place, it probably wasn't as Dreemurrs are the only royal family mentioned but we never hear about _anyone_ else aside from the three we know. No mention of Toriel's parents, Asgore's parents, Asriels' grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, absolutely _nothing._   
  
The Dreemurrs, in context, seem like they just came out of thin air, there's zilch known about their families and that is _especially_ odd considering the royal stigma as those are usually meticulously recorded for historical purposes and/or lineage tracking, that's where the term blue/royal blood comes from. 

In the same vein, because of the lack of monarchical history, who's to say that monsters were ever a monarchy in the first place? Sure they could've been on their own but frankly a _known_ weak race of creatures with _0_ information on their previous government structure, which is incredibly odd seeing as there's a _very_ old monster historian who lived on the surface and quite a few books on monster history, makes me think that monsters may have been a tribe or non-monarchical kingdom due to the lack of hereditary leaders. 

Nice tangent, sorry, _anyway. _What I'm saying is; this type of society may not be native to monsters, hell even magic (external usage, not innate soul/biology stuff) might not be a natively monster thing, considering what we've seen from DR and even _in _Undertale, Gerson, an incredibly old surface monster used a HAMMER.  
A fucking real, probably metal, _hammer_.  
Being a species that can make magic projectiles. Even _Undyne_ uses magic spears instead of regular ones.

And based on Gerson's weird total lack of magic and the fact that magic isn't seen as traditional, but _puzzles_ seem to be, based on the old puzzler, that makes me a little suspicious. Because to monsters, puzzles and mazes are seen as traditional and not magic, but magic seems to take it's place as it's more or less weaponized by Darkners in the same way as puzzles are to Monsters. 

Maybe i'm just a huge stickler for world building but the lack of it is starting to bother me considering the possibly huge weight of DR's plot on the past of UT.  
_(Toby mentioned that the ending won't change, he didn't say a thing about it's past, just that they aren't each other's prologue/epilogue) _

Can't believe I had to compare puzzles to magic in a historical sense. I'm having a weird night.

\------------------  
Side Note: DR Toriel and Asgore are probably different from UTs'  
\------------------

-Similar lifespan to Rudy (Regular monster) 

  * Attended college w/ him
  * Were most likely college-aged in college (ie: 20's)
  * Generally seem to be in the same age group

-Probably are actually middle-aged instead of incredibly old beings in middle aged bodies.

-Seemingly incapable of magic, due to Toriel actually using her stove instead of fire magic.

-Zero distinction between them and regular monsters unlike in UT.

TL;DR UT Sans (who might be related to the Spades), Toriel and Asgore are suspicious as _fuck_ and might be Darkners in plain sight. 

\---------

PHEW, what a doozy. These games still surprise me to this day. 

If you have any questions, feel free to ask!


	7. HIATUS

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> yeah.

So, uh yeah, going on hiatus for a little bit, thought I'd 'officially' announce it unlike the previous one. 

  1. Really haven't felt like writing in a _long_ while.
  2. My opinions and theories are _rapidly_ changing, not necessarily a bad thing, I'd just prefer to get a good footing on what I believe before writing an entire short story out of it, y'know?

Anyhoo, hopefully I'll be back on my feet in a bit.   
Thanks for reading so far!


End file.
